A 147 year record was broken at Musselburgh Racecourse today (1Jan) when Jazmine Tomlinson became the first women to win the famous New Year Sprint athletics race.
The Sprint, for decades known as the Powderhall Sprint and traditionally held on 1 January, is now part of Musselburgh’s annual festive horseracing and athletics gala.
Jazmine, 18, from Jedburgh, brought a record 5,400 crowd to its feet when she pipped Ryan Houten by a narrow margin in a thrilling final in which Keiran Reilly came a close third.
Eighty eight runners had entered for the world’s oldest professional sprintrace which has a first prize of £4000 but Jazmine, who was place third in last year’s event, came through the heats and held her nerve to make history.
Race promoter Frank Hanlon said: “We have been waiting for about the last 15 years for a female winner and it was only a matter of time before the men’s hold on this historic race was shattered. With a record crowd at Musselburgh Racecourse, Jazmine couldn’t have picked a better time to enter the history books.”
A member of the TLJT Club, Jazmine loves her running and works part-time at the Teviot Smokery and a pub in her home town in the Scottish Borders. She hopes to start a sports science degree course at Stirling University later this year.
Clutching the impressive crystal trophy and a cheque for £4,000 she said: "It's unbelievable and it still hasn't sunk in. I'm going to use the money to buy a car.
"It was a really close finish but it was a great feeling to win in front of more than 5,000 people - it's by far the biggest crowd I've raced for. It's a great venue too and a brilliant atmosphere. There won't be too many celebrations as I don't drink but it's amazing to be the first girl to win this as everyone wants to win the New Year Sprint."
The New Year Sprint final is sandwiched between a full horseracing card and it was a Borders double with the £40,000 feature race, the totepoolliveinfo.com Hogmaneigh Hurdle won by Aristo Du Plessis which is trained by Langholm based James Ewart.
Bill Farnsworth, Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, said: “What an excellent way to kick-start 2016. We have pulled in our largest every crowd for the New Year’s Day meeting and they were all on their feet to watch Jazmine race home to become the first female New Year’s Day Sprint champion.”
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